Profits Squeezed at the Margin

Corporate earnings have been sustained by slashing jobs, hardly a recipe for recovery.

THAT THINGS ARE GETTING WORSE more slowly is the essence of the bullish argument for the U.S. economy and, by extension, corporate profits. After the nosedive of the past two quarters, the rate of decline will flatten out and give way to an eventual ascent by later this year.

But that takeoff could be slower and later than assumed, as I noted in Up & Down Wall Street in this week's print edition ("Do Be Wary of Green...